1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to advertising and more particularly to a method and apparatus for sequentially displaying multiple copies in a single display.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advent of modern display advertising, limitations on advertising budgets and limited locations for display to high densities of consumers, a great demand has arisen for the capability of preparing multiple advertisements and the displaying the multiple advertisements in timed sequences at popular display locations thus enabling a number of advertisers to benefit from a single location. Numerous different methods and devices have been proposed for preparing and displaying such advertisements. Many such devices involve relatively unwieldy mechanical elements driven by complex mechanical drive mechanisms which require a certain degree of mechanical precision thus adding to the expense of original manufacture and resulting in prohibitively expensive maintenance. Others require expensive procedures to treat the advertising copy for display thus adding to the overall cost.
There exists also a need for a system for displaying multiple copies wherein the exchange from one display to another is nearly instantaneous to thus enable the sequential display of different copies which may give the impression of animation to thereby draw and hold the viewer's attention to what appears to be an animated advertisements.
Numerous different prior art display devices have endeavored to utilize patterns of back lighted apertures selectively unmasked to display predetermined patterns of illumination defining different numbers, letters or figures. These devices, however, generally fail to afford the benefit of receiving and displaying multiple copies of display advertising in an efficient and convenient manner.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of creating a computer copy film or transparency for sequentially displaying displays of discrete copies. The transparency is made up of a mosaic of discrete patterns formed by relatively small interlaced translucent window segments arranged in uniform groups, with the window element of each group occupying the same relative position in each group and bearing a coloration corresponding with the coloration of the corresponding area of one of the discrete copies. The transparency may thus be backlighted and an opaque screen having a corresponding uniform pattern of display apertures aligned with the corresponding window element of each group. The screen may then be selectively shifted laterally distances corresponding with the widths of such window elements to selectively block out all but a single discrete pattern to sequentially display each such discrete pattern.